A Death In The Gunj – Movie Review

‘A Death In The Gunj’ is a spectacular directorial debut from actress Konkana Sen Sharma. The film is about a family’s uneventful vacation that came from Calcutta to McCluskieganj (Bihar).

Konkana Sen Sharma has made a very sensible and realistic film with a pragmatic approach on how we humans behave. She shows the different faces of human, their unpredictable character and behaviour (when being alone and together with others) in an impeccable manner. How selfish we are, how materialistic and opportunistic everyone of us are, how we turn blind when it comes to our own fault and how much microscopic we are when it comes to judging others, how cool we are to choose the weakest one to bully, humiliate & make fun of, how we isolate few people around us and make them feel deserted for no reason, how we give someone the ache of not being loved back, how we ignore the presence of someone so conveniently, how we belittle or demean someone without understanding what it could do to them – the director has depicted so many such things immaculately in this intense drama!!

The character sketches and casting has been extra-ordinary, to say the least! As the title implies, the film is about a death primarily. Even though we knew very well that the film is slowly progressing towards it with a mild tension and a intriguing play between the characters, it is too hard to handle the climax and the way it is wonderfully staged. The heart-rending climax will leave a lump in throat, even for the strong-hearted ones. The dialogues are quite sparkling, fitting in the characters and situations such as ‘You are so pretty, you could be a girl’.

The film has got the best of art direction, costume designing, music and cinematography that the script demands. There aren’t any major flaws in this drama thriller that runs for less than 2 hours.

‘A Death in the Gunj’ is a gem of a film – one of the outstanding films of this year! The climax is very disturbing and it could haunt you for a couple of days. Can’t wait to see what will be Konkana Sen Sharma’s next directorial.